If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Tunnels underneath Disneyland?

I have two family members who started working at Disneyland this past year and both have been told that there are tunnels, or walkways underneath the park. But neither have been shown where to access them or even been in them.

Im know about the 'tunnel' system underneath the Magic Kingdom in Orlando and have seen pictures, but was never aware there was something similar underneath Disneyland.

I was with my partner who worked at the park for 11 years, and I noticed a stairway at the left of the Tomorrowland entrance (kind of by the Triton fountain) that led a few steps down to a doorway. That is one entrance to the tunnel system. I am sure he knows of more. There isn't an underground city like at WDW but there are tunnels.

I was with my partner who worked at the park for 11 years, and I noticed a stairway at the left of the Tomorrowland entrance (kind of by the Triton fountain) that led a few steps down to a doorway. That is one entrance to the tunnel system. I am sure he knows of more. There isn't an underground city like at WDW but there are tunnels.

That is correct. The tunnel leads to a breakroom bellow Tomorrowland Terrace and the dressing rooms for the band. It then goes all the way back stage. It is not used like the tunnels at WDW.

I don't know and I don't care if It's a Small World. It's a nice day when you wake up in Disneyland.

No tunnels - maybe some Orcs and Dwarves, though....

Anaheim Disneyland has no tunnels to speak of. There are local underpasses, mostly under the berm (makes it easier to avoid getting run over by a train.)

When a new attraction building is constructed, there are basements, often confused with tunnels. No tunnels to the Island, no magical underground. In Tomorrowland, when the stage area was rebuilt, it made sense to drop in a small tunnel access, since they were pouring concrte foundation walls anyway.

Remember, DLR was built at grade lvel - on the ground. Orlando WDW is built up above the original grade, so the Utilidoor system is merely a system of rooms and halls in the basement, designed to fix the backstage-onstage access problems learned from DLR.

As for rides being "underground" - in relation to the entry level, this may seem to be so. In reality, rides are housed in backstage buildings that go into the ground a few feet, but not truely underground.

Space Mountain was recently excavated down a few more feet to accommodate the new track design, but again - no underground.

There are, however, two ancient caverns below the Matterhorn and Rivers of America, where Orcs, Dwarves, and a few Trolls live. They feed on the cats.

The ride begins at ground level (technically "above" gound level, but ground level for all intents and purposes), unless you think the Blue Bayou is somehow underground (one does need to climb a few steps to enter it).

Then you go down a couple ramps. Here you pass under the berm. While you do go through tunnels that pass under the railroad track, the rest of the ride is above ground, contained in the show building seen on the left (from the vantage point of the trains) as you approach the tunnel dividing Adventurland from New Orleans Square.

The show building is in no way "underground." It is very much above ground, and used to be quite visible from the old parking lot, before the Indy show building came along.

If you consider tunnels under the tracks to be "underground," then you must also agree that one passes "underground" when one enters the park through the entrance tunnels.

Last edited by smd4; 12-28-2006 at 09:33 AM.

Steve

My new book, From Plantation to Theme Park: The Story of Disneyland Railroad Locomotive No. 5, the Ward Kimball is now availble! You can read more about the book and place your pre-order here: http://www.steampassages.com

We've had this argument before. Somebody said when they went downstairs from the old One-Of-A-Kind shop they could hear people singing in the boats, but I guess we are all wrong. Except you.

That's your evidence? One post where someone says they heard noise in a room where the boats were heading under the berm?

To paraphrase Marley's Ghost, "What evidence would you have that the ride is not entirely underground beyond that of your own senses?" Do you not see that giant above-ground show building at the NOS tunnel?

Circled in red on the right-hand side of the picture: the very-much-above-ground POTC Show Building.

My new book, From Plantation to Theme Park: The Story of Disneyland Railroad Locomotive No. 5, the Ward Kimball is now availble! You can read more about the book and place your pre-order here: http://www.steampassages.com

I was one of the lucky few to have experienced Disneyland's experimental backstage tour program of some years ago.

One of the tour stops was HM: the group went down several flights of stairs (in a location that's not especially noticeable, but not actually hidden) to a maintenance corridor, where the guide opened some access doors to show us the Omnimover tracks (you would not believe how much of a racket those things make below the floor level!), then took us into the control tower (which is located between the unloading station and the loading station).

The lowest level of the show building is somewhat below grade, but not very far, and the ground level in New Orleans Square seems to be somewhat higher than in much of the rest of the park, anyway.

As to PotC, since there are no lifts until the end, the flume would need to be low enough to clear the Berm, with enough space for a bridge strong enough to keep a locomotive from falling through, but as we can see in Town Square, such a bridge doesn't take up THAT much space. I'd conjecture that flume level is perhaps, at most, a couple of feet below Town Square street level, and perhaps four to eight feet below New Orleans Square street level.

My stepdad and his brother were escorted off of a ride (Space Mountain) because they were carrying firearms (they are law enforcement). This was probably unwise... but thats a different story...

They were led into an underground tunnel near Space Mountain. They were taken into an office and questioned. After it was all said and done, they were taken through a tunnel led all the way to New Orleans Square ... where they immerged near Pirates.

I did not go through any tunnels myself. But. This is what I have been told. And my step-father is not the kind of person who would make such a thing up.

Slightly below and to the left of the POTC show building in the photo linked in my earlier post, you can see the HM show building.

Obviously, it's not underground either. Sure, both buildings may have been built into the ground a bit, but certailnly we cannot call them "underground," which implies (actually, by definition, means) being buried under at least a bit of earth.

I'd be more inclined to state that the Submarine show building is closer to being "underground" than either HM or POTC.

Steve

My new book, From Plantation to Theme Park: The Story of Disneyland Railroad Locomotive No. 5, the Ward Kimball is now availble! You can read more about the book and place your pre-order here: http://www.steampassages.com

From Wikipedia...take it for what it's worth...it is obvious that there is a grade in POTC...however, if it is considered "underground" or not, I don't know. The show does have high ceilings so the show building would be visible on the outside...however, the ground level of the ride may be lower than the rest of NOS.

Disneyland
Grand opening: March 18, 1967
Ride capacity: 3400 guests per hour
Audio-Animatronics: 122
68 humans
54 animals
Total amount of water: 750,000 gallons
Main lift pumps:
Pump number one is rated at a maximum of 20,000 gallons per minute
Pump number two is rated at a maximum of 18,000 gallons per minute
First drop length: 52'
First drop angle: 21
Second drop length: 37'
Second drop angle: 21
Length of final lift back to Lafitte's Landing: 90'
Angle of final lift back to Lafitte's Landing: - 16 degrees
Number of show buildings: 2 (112,826 square feet)
Number of levels: 3
Canal length: 1,838 feet
Blue Bayou
Upper caverns
Main show in basement
Maximum ceiling height: 40'
Show length: 14:30
Required ticket: "E" (discontinued)
Ride system: Flume

Is this really an argument any more? Is there really some question as to the veracity of this, that can somehow be debated?

Or was Disney's design team so good at what they did as to convince people, even today, that the ride is actually underground? Seems so.

Steve

My new book, From Plantation to Theme Park: The Story of Disneyland Railroad Locomotive No. 5, the Ward Kimball is now availble! You can read more about the book and place your pre-order here: http://www.steampassages.com

From Wikipedia...take it for what it's worth...it is obvious that there is a grade in POTC...however, if it is considered "underground" or not, I don't know. The show does have high ceilings so the show building would be visible on the outside...however, the ground level of the ride may be lower than the rest of NOS.

Does being in a flume that may be below grade, in a large building with walls that tower 40 feet into the sky, qualify as being "underground?"

If we're going to apply some arbitrary definition that "anything built below grade--even if the show building extends dozens of feet above ground, is still to be considered 'underground,'" then, by that definition, we are required to place Space Mountain in the exact same category--since its foundation is 10 feet below grade. I wonder who will be the first to argue that SM is entirely underground.

Can we at least agree that "underground" means having at least a few inches of dirt over one's head? The usual definition for "underground" is "below the surface of the earth." I'm really at a loss to explain how anyone can think the massive, visible show buildings of POTC are situated below the surface of the earth.

Of course, in this day and age, I'm at a loss to explain a lot of things.

Steve

My new book, From Plantation to Theme Park: The Story of Disneyland Railroad Locomotive No. 5, the Ward Kimball is now availble! You can read more about the book and place your pre-order here: http://www.steampassages.com

Does being in a flume that may be below grade, in a large building with walls that tower 40 feet into the sky, qualify as being "underground?"

Can we at least agree that "underground" means having at least a few inches of dirt over one's head? The usual definition for "underground" is "below the surface of the earth." I'm really at a loss as to how anyone can think the massive, visible show buildings of POTC are situated below the surface of the earth.

Of course, in this day and age, I'm at a loss for a lot of things.

I don't care either way.

I think we all can agree that the entire ride is not underground.

At no point are you beneath the earth on the ride...

I think the issue here is semantics...Some are saying that underground means going beneath the level of the surrounding area, which I don't agree with.

However, that being said, I do believe Pirates does go below the level of New Orleans Square. I just did the math and it does drop below street level. Underground? I wouldn't consider it underground. I would compare it to a city like San Francisco where there are a lot of hills. Just because the street I am on right now is lower than the street I was on previously, does not mean I am underground now.

If one is searching for massive underground structures...either look at the Magic Kingdom or my hometown of Sacramento.

Well, that's what drew me into this thread. Apparently, we cannot all agree. Tod wrote, simply, "hell, the entire Pirates of the Caribbean attraction is underground." But I agree with your analogy.

Steve

My new book, From Plantation to Theme Park: The Story of Disneyland Railroad Locomotive No. 5, the Ward Kimball is now availble! You can read more about the book and place your pre-order here: http://www.steampassages.com

My new book, From Plantation to Theme Park: The Story of Disneyland Railroad Locomotive No. 5, the Ward Kimball is now availble! You can read more about the book and place your pre-order here: http://www.steampassages.com

Logically, since the boats go down 2 drops at the beginning, and up a lift at the end, and just float in a channel in between, the water level has to be more-or-less the same between the last drop and the lift.

So the water surface is below ground level, and the only reason the show building extends above ground level is because the sets you pass through include a tall ship and multistory building facades.

So since the water level is below-grade, you are underground. But by the same definition, if you walk through a knee-deep trench, you're also underground, and if you drive down certain sections of the 405 and 110 freeways in Los Angeles County, you're traveling even deeper underground, even though except when streets bridge the trench, you've got nothing but sky directly above you.

Logically, since the boats go down 2 drops at the beginning, and up a lift at the end, and just float in a channel in between, the water level has to be more-or-less the same between the last drop and the lift.

So the water surface is below ground level, and the only reason the show building extends above ground level is because the sets you pass through include a tall ship and multistory building facades.

So since the water level is below-grade, you are underground. But by the same definition, if you walk through a knee-deep trench, you're also underground, and if you drive down certain sections of the 405 and 110 freeways in Los Angeles County, you're traveling even deeper underground, even though except when streets bridge the trench, you've got nothing but sky directly above you.

And by that definition, the Storybook Land Canal Boats would also be underground--since for much of their route, the surface grade is above them...

Clearly "underground" must mean something other than "below grade."

Steve

My new book, From Plantation to Theme Park: The Story of Disneyland Railroad Locomotive No. 5, the Ward Kimball is now availble! You can read more about the book and place your pre-order here: http://www.steampassages.com

MousePlanet® is not associated in any official way with the Walt Disney Company, its subsidiaries, or its affiliates. The official Disney site is available at www.disney.com. This MousePlanet Web site provides independent news articles, commentary, editorials, reviews, and guides primarily about the theme park resorts of the Walt Disney Co. All information on this site is subject to change. Please call destinations in advance to confirm the most up-to-date information.